


rare and sweet as cherry wine

by closingdoors



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: F/F, Romantic Fluff, i have no excuse for writing this, title taken from the hozier song
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:34:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23920138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/closingdoors/pseuds/closingdoors
Summary: "Her fiancée, Vanessa Woodfield, is literally turning every head she walks past. What happened to her ugly jumpers and yellow coat?"Or: the one where Vanessa actually dresses well for one night.
Relationships: Charity Dingle/Vanessa Woodfield
Comments: 7
Kudos: 166





	rare and sweet as cherry wine

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is a result of me staring at [this photo](https://twitter.com/bestofemichelle/status/1251199704437854216) of Michelle Hardwick and asking my friends if I should write fic about Vanessa wearing the same outfit. That's it. That's the whole plot.
> 
> Set on Rhona's birthday in 2019, completely ignoring all the drama that was going on at the time, because I'm lazy and I wanted to.

Jimmy makes a strangled noise and chokes on his pint. Charity looks up from her magazine, bemused at the sight of him red in the face, before following his line of sight behind her.

There's a moment when the rest of the pub fades away. Her pen slips from her fingers and clatters to the floor. 

She doesn't know where to look first. Vanessa fusses with her hair nervously, the ends curling lightly, her eyes smoky and dark as they watch Charity for her reaction. She swallows and takes in the sight of her: the all-black outfit, the lace that criss-crosses her waist, the deep v-neck that ends halfway down her navel. 

"What d'you think? Too much?" Vanessa cringes a little after she asks, adjusting the high waistband of her trousers, bringing the curve of her hips and the dip of her waist to the forefront of Charity's mind.

She wants to touch everywhere and anywhere.

Charity clears her throat.

"Wow babe, all this for little old me?" 

Vanessa rolls her eyes. "It's Rhona's birthday. Remember? I've dropped the boys off at Tracy's and booked the taxi home but it'll be a late one, so don't wait up for me." 

Charity curls her arm around Vanessa's waist, bringing their bodies close, their chests brushing. It's a bit indecent considering the pub full of people around them. She doesn't quite think she cares. Not when she feels Vanessa's sharp intake of breath, not when heat has slowly spread through her stomach just from looking at her.

"Reckon you're a sight to wait up for."

"All this flattery," Vanessa murmurs, running her hands up Charity's arms until her fingers can play with the baby hairs at the nape of her neck, "it could go to my head."

"It's not just pretty compliments I'd give you, babe, if you chose to stay home."

Vanessa groans. "I can't, Charity, it's her birthday."

Charity dips her lips to Vanessa's ear, letting them brush against her skin as she speaks. 

"I'd make it worth your while."

She feels Vanessa shiver against her. Someone very pointedly clears their throat nearby - Chas, probably, always ready to ruin the mood. They both ignore it and Vanessa digs her teeth into her lower lip, pupils blown wide as she stares up at Charity.

Just as soon as she thinks she's got Vanessa in the palm of her hand, she loses her again. The door to the pub bangs open.

"Wow, Ness, you look _gorgeous!_ "

Charity sighs as Vanessa slips away from her, heading round to the other side of the bar to greet Rhona with a kiss on the cheek. Rhona pats her own hair after.

"Now I wish I'd made more of an effort."

"Don't be daft, you look wonderful," Vanessa says, linking their arms together. "Cab outside?" 

"And ready to go. You'll be pulling in no time."

"Er, excuse me. There will be no pulling tonight, thank you," Charity interrupts, leaning across the bar, "not when she's got the real deal home at home." 

Rhona rolls her eyes. Vanessa moves away from Rhona to lean against the bar. Charity marvels for a second how the cut of her top manages to preserve any modesty at all; she catches an eyeful. Maybe some of that's purposeful on Vanessa's part.

"Of course not." Vanessa smiles sweetly, tangling their hands together. "You're enough of a headache as it is." 

"Thank you very much," Charity retorts hotly. 

"You're welcome." 

Charity shakes her head, but meets Vanessa halfway for a kiss. Vanessa goes to pull away but Charity curls her fingers at the back of her neck, holding her in place firmly, swallowing the startled sound Vanessa makes. 

She pulls away, smirking when Vanessa's eyes are glazed over, the edges of her lipstick smudged.

"Have a nice night," she says lightly, leaning away, though her head's dizzy from the smell of Vanessa's perfume.

Vanessa blinks and gathers herself. She stands and holds her shoulders straight. Charity curls her hands into fists beneath the bar. Distantly, she hears Chas snicker. 

"Oh, we will," Rhona says brightly, stepping up beside Vanessa.

Vanessa links their arms together again and, with one last wink at Charity, walks through the pub and to the door. Almost every head in the pub turns to watch her. For a moment Charity has no idea what to do with that information: that her fiancée, Vanessa Woodfield, is literally turning every head she walks past. What happened to her ugly jumpers and yellow coat? 

She swats at Jimmy with her magazine. "Put your eyes back in your head."

Behind her, Chas snorts. "You should probably pick your jaw up from the floor an'all." 

* * *

Charity waits until it's died down - precisely thirty-seven minutes after Vanessa and Rhona had left - before she approaches Chas, who's leaning against the bar and watching the Tuesday evening crowd impassively.

"No."

"I haven't even said anything yet!" Charity protests.

"You're going to ask if you can skive off just because Vanessa was dressed up to the nines when she left. And the answer is no, you finish your shift."

"Babe - "

" _No,_ Charity."

"I'll do the next two weekends. C'mon, Chas, can you really blame me?" 

Chas levels her with a look. "Charity, you begged me to put you on tonight's rota so that you could get out of Rhona's birthday drinks. Vanessa's been acting like _I'm_ the bad guy all week. She even burnt my flamin' toast yesterday. On purpose."

"Well, yeah, but that was before I knew she was gonna look like that," Charity says, making the shape of an hourglass figure with her hands, which just makes Chas's face scrunch up with disgust. "Alright, the next _month_ of weekends. I'll do them. Promise."

"You'll only skive off them too," Chas says, stealing the magazine from Charity's hands, promptly ending the discussion.

* * *

In the end, Vanessa does all the hard work for her. 

Charity's sitting in the back room, her legs up on the coffee table, checking and then rechecking her text thread with Vanessa.

She'd told Chas she was going to clean the toilets and had been surprised when her cousin had actually trusted her enough to take her hawk eyes off of her for a second. She's furiously searched for any sign of how Vanessa's night is going since, but the only thing new is a photo Vanessa had added to Facebook, of the two of them posed at the bar with bright-coloured cocktails in their hands, with a caption wishing Rhona a happy birthday. 

Charity drops her phone, groaning and scrubbing her hand over her eyes. It's unfair that Vanessa looks so good and she's not able to be anywhere near her. 

"Oi!"

Charity glares up at her. "What?" 

"Firstly," Chas says, holding up one finger, " _this_ is not the toilets." 

"Observant as always."

Chas holds up a second finger. "Secondly, your shift's over early."

Charity jumps to her feet so quickly her head swims. 

"You've had a change of heart."

"Don't get too excited. Vanessa just called and said you weren't answering your phone. Which is a bloody miracle, in my opinion, considering you're practically glued to the thing."

Charity frowns and checks her phone, tuning Chas out as she witters on. A text from Vanessa has just popped through with an address to a cocktail bar. _Wear something nice,_ is added on at the end with a winky-faced emoji.

"...and she said Johnny won't stop giving Tracy jip, so you're to go round there and help her out. Alright?"

Charity shoves her phone into her back pocket.

"Right. Yeah. I'll go there now." 

Chas narrows her eyes. "What's wrong with your face?" 

"Listen, babe, as much as I'd love to stand here and be insulted all night, I've got someone needy to attend to."

"You probably shouldn't let Vanessa hear you call him that." 

Charity hides her grin.

* * *

The bar is colourful and trashy in a way that probably appeals to people like Rhona and Vanessa. 90s music is playing loudly, apparently the appropriate theme for a Tuesday night, and most of it hurts her ears. Half the people in the room look like they're dressed like something out of the 90s, too. Why couldn't they have just let that fashion die the death it deserved?

In no time, her eyes catch Vanessa and Rhona by the bar, laughing over their drinks. The bartender seems to have taken an interest in Vanessa, his eyes running over her bare arms and dipping down to her cleavage. Charity wastes no time in crossing the room and draping her arm over Vanessa's shoulders, catching her surprised grin with a kiss. She tastes sharp, like gin.

"You came," Vanessa says, hands bunching in Charity's blazer.

"Not yet, babe, but my chances are looking brighter now." 

Beside them, Rhona groans. "You two better not ruin my night with all your flirting."

"Wouldn't dream of it."

"Right." Rhona eyes them skeptically. "So, you gonna buy me a birthday drink?" 

"Hark at her, getting too big for her boots."

Vanessa pinches her side, pitching her close enough so that Vanessa's hips brush against her stomach. Heat pools between her legs instantly.

Charity rolls her eyes, pulling out her card. "Go on then, what d'you want?"

* * *

They all pile into a booth in the corner of the bar, getting Vanessa as far away from that bartender's pervy eyes as she can without alerting her to it. Charity's pleasantly surprised to find Rhona half-decent company once she's gotten a couple drinks in her. No filter to speak of, meaning stories of her and Vanessa's uni days that make Vanessa go bright red while she valiantly tries to get Rhona to stop talking. Charity eggs her on. 

When Rhona excuses herself to pop to the toilet, Charity crowds Vanessa up against the plush leather seats instantly, her fingers fiddling with the flimsy metal clasp barely holding Vanessa's bodysuit closed over her chest.

"Charity, stop it," Vanessa warns, but her cheeks are flushed enough that Charity thinks she wouldn't protest if she stole her away to the toilets and pressed her up against the cubicle door.

The only reason she doesn't is because an outfit like this deserves peeling off slowly. She wants Vanessa to _beg._

"And stop looking at me like that, too."

"Like what, babe?" Charity asks, tilting her head innocently.

"Like you're ten seconds away from ripping my clothes off."

Charity tugs at the hook again. "Maybe I am." 

A pretty pink colour spreads across Vanessa's sternum. She wants to drop her lips to it, to taste it on her tongue. For now, having the warm weight of Vanessa's body pressed against her side is enough. Especially when it means she's close enough to feel Vanessa's breath catch. She watches her throat bob. 

"Stop," Vanessa murmurs again, softer and less passionate this time.

Charity dips her head to kiss Vanessa, open-mouthed. Vanessa's hands slide under her blazer, gathering the chiffon material of her blouse in her palms, her kiss firm and strong and her tongue hot against her own. Charity breaks away only to catch her breath and run her hands over Vanessa's sides.

"Where the bloody hell were you hiding this, anyway?"

"Have to give you a surprise every now and then, don't I?"

"Bloody heart attack, more like," she mutters, nudging Vanessa's hair aside with her nose so that she can ghost her lips against her neck.

Vanessa laughs, the sound making Charity's mouth fill with butterflies. Her hand sinks into Charity's hair. 

Charity closes her eyes, breathing her in. She still smells like her perfume but smells like those syrupy cocktails she and Rhona have been knocking back all night, too. Charity has had enough wine herself to make her emotional and her eyes sting with traitorous tears when she remembers that Vanessa, beautiful and bubbly, is _hers._ No matter how many people look at her tonight, she's the one Vanessa's going home with, her ring on her finger, their kids waiting to be collected in the morning.

Swallowing past the lump in her throat, she presses a gentle kiss where Vanessa's neck meets her jaw. Vanessa's hands soften in Charity's hair.

"Alright?" 

Charity pulls back and brushes the hair out of Vanessa's eyes. They're hazy around the edges from alcohol but still focused on Charity. Sometimes she has no idea how to handle the way Vanessa watches her.

"I'm alright," she promises.

* * *

They stumble over some of the shoes by the door, Charity quietening Vanessa's giggles when she pushes her up against the wall and meets her in a kiss again. Vanessa's warm and pliable against her, body rising to meet Charity's hands without hesitation, even as the hands move ceaselessly, wanting to touch every part of Vanessa that she can. If she doesn't get her hands on Vanessa's bare skin soon she thinks she might explode.

"Upstairs?" Vanessa mumbles against her lips.

"Too far."

Vanessa melts against her. "Thank god."

Vanessa grabs fistfuls of Charity's blouse in her hands and uses it to pull her through the hallway and the door that leads to the living room, not breaking their kiss once. Her belly tugs at the feeling of Vanessa taking control. It always feels different, handing over the reigns to Vanessa. She spent so much of her life vulnerable and she's desperately chased control so that she'll never have to feel that way again. When Vanessa leads, there's something freeing about it.

Safe.

Vanessa's thighs bump against the back of the sofa and Charity's fingers are trying to find the zipper for her trousers when suddenly Vanessa yelps, springing away from the sofa and almost toppling Charity over in the process.

Chas is sitting there, expression so serene Charity briefly wonders she's going to murder them.

"Imagine how strange it was when Tracy came in with little Moses and Johnny tonight, saying Vanessa had forgotten to pack one of Moses's favourite toys," Chas says, crossing her arms over her chest, "and when _I_ asked where Charity was, she said she'd never called Vanessa to ask for her in the first place."

Vanessa steps behind Charity, muffling her laughter in her shoulder, which would be effective if not for the fact she's been drinking for four hours and Chas isn't blind or deaf. Charity just shrugs nonchalantly, hands in her pockets.

"Strange, that."

Chas stands. "Every weekend for the next _two_ months."

"What?" She gawks. "It's not _my_ fault! Ness is the one who lied!" 

"Yes but you went along with it and skived off work to go on the pull, Charity." 

"Is it technically pulling if we're engaged?" Vanessa asks, scrunching her nose adorably. 

"I'm choosing to ignore that because you're drunk," Chas says, making Vanessa's nose wrinkle even further. "Two months, Charity. I mean it." 

" _Fine,_ " Charity sighs with an exaggerated eye roll. 

It's not a bad condition, really, since it means she'll get to see more of Vanessa and the kids if she's behind the bar and Vanessa isn't working. She doesn't dare voice that opinion, though, happy to let Chas believe she's punishing her appropriately.

Chas stands, tying the knot of her dressing gown and nodding to the pair of them. She brushes past them and stops in the doorway, looking Vanessa up and down. Vanessa smothers a yawn behind her palm. 

"You do look good, love. No wonder this one went crazy trying to join you."

"I did not," Charity scoffs.

Vanessa gets a dopey smile on her face. "Is that right?"

Charity looks away, focusing on the whirl of the wood on the floor, and Vanessa's hand slips into hers. Chas laughs softly and bids them goodnight and for a moment they just stand there, hands linked, listening to Chas's footsteps as she walks up the stairs. 

Vanessa's the one to break the moment and lead them further into the room. Charity drops down at the table and chairs as Vanessa sets about making them a brew. Sleepiness clings to the edges of Vanessa now and Charity takes a moment to simply watch her. Sometimes it doesn't feel real, her life with Vanessa, because it's all so good. Nothing good has ever voluntarily stayed in her life before.

"So you like it when I get all dressed up, then?" 

"I think all of Yorkshire like it when you get dressed up, babe. Especially when you get the girls out," Charity replies, motioning to her chest.

Vanessa shakes her head fondly. "Your mind is always in the gutter."

"Can you blame me when you look like _that?_ "

"S'pose not," Vanessa replies, taking the teabags from the water too soon.

She potters about the kitchen, sucking on the edge of her thumb when she burns it on the kettle, her heels discarded and the cuffs of her trousers brushing against the floor. The low light of the kitchen paints her in a warm honey hue. Charity loves her.

"But, y'know, reckon I'd find you attractive in a bin bag. So long as you're the one in it." 

Vanessa glances over, her smile more genuine. 

"Me too."

And it's _true,_ she knows it is, that the way Vanessa loves her is different to any love she's received before. That she's not a trophy wife on an arm to be flashed about. Vanessa's seen it all, the good days and the bad, the interrupted sleep filled with nightmares and the mornings with her stale breath and her hair a bird's nest around her head. She's stuck around and loved her despite it all. _Through_ it all. 

Vanessa holds a mug out to her and Charity takes it, letting it warm her palms. She takes Vanessa's hand and leads her towards the stairs.

"You know, you promised you'd make it worth my time if I stayed home."

Charity arches an eyebrow. "And did you stay?"

They make it to the top of the landing. Vanessa's eyes are dark once more. 

"No, I didn't." 

Charity smiles, pushing the door to their room open. 

"Reckon that means you need punishing, don't you?" 

Vanessa follows her inside, shutting the door behind her quietly. Charity hears her move about until the lamp is switched on and she's setting her mug of tea on the bedside table before draping herself across the bed. Charity hurries to join her, resting her length alongside Vanessa's.

Vanessa pauses before they kiss, rubbing her thumb underneath Charity's eye.

"I love you."

"Yeah." She nudges her nose against Vanessa's. "I reckon you're alright, too." 


End file.
